indigenous people – आवारा मुसाफिर

Thailand’s sea nomads work to preserve a vanishing way of life

December 22, 202486 Views

When Hook was a child, he started his days by jumping off the boat that his family lived on and into the ocean. By age 3, he could already swim and dive in shallow waters. His home was a kabang, a boat, that his family sailed in Thailand’s southern waters. The ocean was his backyard. Now Hook, whose full name is Suriyan Klathale, lives on land like the rest of his community, a people known as the Moken. The recollections of his childhood, which many Moken of his generation still have, are mostly just memories. The community, a group of indigenous people from Thailand and Myanmar, came to worldwide attention for its members’ understanding of waves when the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck in December 2004 and killed more than 200,000 people. The few tourists who happened to be on the isla...

खबरनामाघटनाएंब्राजील

Brazil hails a sacred cloak’s homecoming after centuries in Europe

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

September 15, 2024181 Views

Indigenous chants and the rattle of maracas resounded Thursday in a Rio de Janeiro park, where Brazil’s Tupinambá people gathered to celebrate the homecoming of a sacred cloak absent for some 380 years. Made of feathers from the scarlet ibis, the artifact from northeastern Brazil resided in Copenhagen until the Danish National Museum donated the cloak to its Brazilian counterpart. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Indigenous Peoples Minister Sonia Guajajara attended a ceremony at Brazil’s National Museum atop a hill in the Boa Vista Park. “It is impossible not to appreciate the beauty and strength of this centuries-old and well-preserved piece, even after so much time outside Brazil, abroad. It is our commitment to preserve this heritage,” Lula said, addressing dozens o...

खबरनामाघटनाएंथाईलैंड

New World Heritage Site forest imperils Thai indigenous people

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

October 8, 20211233 Views

When Gib Tonnarmpech and her family were forced to leave their home in Thailand’s Kaeng Krachan National Park by authorities, they walked more than two days in dense forest with about 60 other families to get to their resettlement site. They named the new site Bang Kloi, after their ancestral land that had been home to the indigenous Karen people for generations - and one that several families have tried to return to in the more than two decades since they were evicted. Kaeng Krachan Forest Complex, Thailand. Photo: Department of National Parks, Thailand Now, the nearly 700 people who live in simple wooden homes on stilts in Bang Kloi village fear new threats after Kaeng Krachan National Park was recognised in July by the United Nations’ cultural agency (UNESCO) as a World Herita...

खबरनामाताइवान

Indigenous Tao way of life under threat on Taiwan island

AWARA MUSAFIR BUREAU

November 9, 2020886 Views

While 2020 will be remembered by many as a year of travel bans and cancelled vacations, the indigenous Tao people of Orchid Island will remember it as the year unprecedented numbers of visitors descended on their once tranquil home. The small island, 90 km (56 miles) off Taiwan’s southeast coast, is home to approximately 4,700 ethnic Austronesian Tao or Yami people, and has in recent years become a popular holiday destination for both Taiwanese and foreigners alike. Traditional tatala boats Orchid Island (Lanyu) is a volcanic island that was formed of magma erupting from the ocean floor. Because the peaks of the mountains at the north-western corner of the island resemble red human heads in the crimson rays of the setting sun, it was formerly known as "Redhead Island." The presen...